Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine

Samantha Mathis - A native New Yorker, Samantha Mathis has had a distinguished career in entertainment. Mathis captivated audiences in popular shows such as "Billions", "The Strain”, "The Good Wife" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm” and proved her versatility in features like The Clovehitch Killer, Being Frank, and upcoming, The Exorcism with Russell Crowe. Mathis made her Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's The Man Who Had All the Luck opposite Chris O'Donnell. She also starred in the Broadway production of Moises Kaufman's 33 Variations, alongside Jane Fonda. Recently, she appeared in Collected Stories at the Geffen Playhouse and Fortin Bras at the Signature Theater.

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Plays: This is Our Youth (The New Group, 1997 Drama Desk Award Best Play nominee; 2015 Tony Award Best Revival of a Play nominee); The Waverly Gallery (2001 Pulitzer Prize finalist); Lobby Hero (Playwrights Horizons, 2001 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award Best Play nominee; 2003 Olivier Award Best New Comedy nominee, 2018 Tony Award Best Revival of a Play nominee); The Starry Messenger (The New Group, 2009); Medieval Play (Signature Theatre, 2012); Hold on to Me Darling (Atlantic Theater Company, 2016; 2024) and The Waverly Gallery (Broadway, 2018).

Film: You Can Count on Me, 2001 Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee for Best Original Screenplay; Margaret – Extended Edition, 2012 European Film Critics’ FIPRESCI Award; and Manchester by the Sea; 2016 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, 2016 BAFTA Film Award for Best Original Screenplay, among numerous other international awards and nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Director. Screenplays include Analyze This (co-writers Harold Ramis and Peter Tolan) and Gangs of New York (co-writers Jay Cocks and Steve Zaillian; 2003 Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay).

Teleplays: “Howards End” (BBC and Starz Network 2017-2018, 2018 BAFTA TV Award for Best Mini Series nominee).

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NANCY ALLSOP - Theatre includes: The Hills Of California (Harold Pinter Theatre, West End); The Fever Syndrome (Hampstead Theatre); God Bless the Child(Royal Court Theatre); Annie (Piccadilly Theatre, West End); The Sound of Music(International Tour); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Manchester Cathedral). Television includes “Young Wallander” (Netflix).

LARA McDONNELL - Lara’s feature credits include the Academy Award-winning Belfast, written and directed by Kenneth Branagh for Focus Features/Universal; Artemis Fowl, also directed by Kenneth Branagh, for Disney; Greatest Days for Elysian Films; Visitation (Blinder Films); The Delinquent Season (Parallel Films) and Love, Rosie (Canyon Creek/Constantin Films). Television includes “The Last Bus” (Wildseed/Netflix), “The Holiday” (Chalkboard), “Ballistic” (Automatik Entertainment/New Regency) and “To Walk Invisible,” written and directed by Sally Wainwright for BBC. Stage work includes the title role in Matilda for the RSC/West End and The Hills of California in the West End.

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Owen Thiele is an actor and writer based in Los Angeles. He’s currently leading FX’s Snowflakes, set to premiere in early 2025. He’s known best for Theater Camp, I Think You Should Leave, Dollface, and Hacks. He has a podcast that lives under Alexandra Cooper’s Unwell network called “In Your Dreams with Owen Thiele” and he is developing a semi-autobiographical 30 minute comedy with Ilana Glazer and Kent Alterman at Amazon Studios. 

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Susanna Styron is a writer and director for film and television, and a documentary filmmaker. 

Her latest documentary short, MY FATHER’S NAME, won Best Documentary in the NYWIFT Online Shorts Festival and is on the 2024-25 festival circuit. Susanna’s documentary feature, OUT OF MY HEAD, premiered in MoMA's Doc Fortnight and went on to win Best International Documentary at the Melbourne Documentary Film festival. Her other documentary credits as writer/director include 9/12: FROM CHAOS TO COMMUNITY; IN OUR OWN BACKYARDS; and SUSPENDED SENTENCE. She began her documentary career as an Associate Producer for ABC-TV's documentary division, Close-Up.

Susanna's debut feature, Sony Pictures' SHADRACH, starring Harvey Keitel and Andie MacDowell, which she directed and co-wrote, premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was one of New York Press critic Armond White's top ten films of the year. She wrote and directed for Sidney Lumet's TV series 100 CENTRE STREET, and wrote for Tom Fontana's BORGIA. Susanna co-authored several TV movies for Hallmark Hall of Fame and Lifetime, including an adaptation of Ann Tyler's BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWN-UPS, with Blythe Danner, Peter Fonda and Faye Dunaway; and the award-winning TAKING BACK OUR TOWN, with Ruby Dee. Her dramatic short, HOUSE OF TEETH, which she wrote and directed, won numerous awards on the festival circuit, aired on Shorts TV, and is available on Amazon. She directed several episodes of Brooke Adams and Lynne Adams' web series ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE.

Susanna’s personal essays have appeared in The Yale Revue, SPIN Magazine, The New York Times and Real Simple magazine.

She serves on the Special Projects Committee of the Directors Guild of America, and the Executive Committee of the Writers Guild Initiative, where she conducts writing workshops with underserved communities such as caregivers of wounded veterans, undocumented immigrant youth and LGBTQ asylum seekers, among others.

She currently has projects in development with The Levinson/Fontana Company, Cinetic Media, and EP/Showrunner Carol Barbee.

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David Wain is the director and co-writer of six feature films, including Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models, Wanderlust, They Came Together and A Futile and Stupid Gesture. 

On television, Wain co-created, directed and co-starred in The State, Childrens Hospital, Stella, Medical Police, and two Wet Hot American Summer mini-series for Netflix. Currently he is the director and executive producer of Mr. Throwback, starring Steph Curry and Adam Pally. 

He's acted in dozens of movies & TV shows including Broad City, Another Period, Drunk History, Portlandia, Bob's Burgers, Murderville and his own web series Wainy Days. 

And over the past few years, he’s been jamming, touring, and making videos as the drummer in the Middle Aged Dad Jam Band.

He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, then did 26 years in Manhattan before moving to Los Angeles where he now lives with his two teenage sons.

Lots more at davidwain.com

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1976 - 2024

Gavin Creel received a Tony Award® for his performance as Cornelius Hackl in HELLO, DOLLY! starring Bette Midler. After making his Broadway debut originating the role of Jimmy Smith in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, for which he received his first Tony Award® nomination, Creel went on to star in the Broadway productions of HAIR (Tony Award® nomination), LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, SHE LOVES ME, THE BOOK OF MORMON, and WAITRESS. Creel was among the star-studded cast of New York City Center Encores! critically acclaimed production of INTO THE WOODS starring as Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince. The celebrated production transferred to Broadway where Creel reprised his role as Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince opposite Sara Bareilles, Brian d’Arcy James, Joshua Henry, Julia Lester and Patina Miller. 

Gavin received an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Elder Price in the London Production of THE BOOK OF MORMON and also appeared on the West End in MARY POPPINS, HAIR, and WAITRESS.

This fall, Gavin brings WALK ON THROUGH: Confessions of a Museum Novice to Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater for a limited run. In his theatrical songwriting debut, Gavin takes us on an intimate, relatable journey of discovery and transformation through the lens of the art at The Met Museum that captured his imagination.

On television, Creel recently performed a solo PBS concert special with “Stars on Stage",” starred as Troy in Ryan Murphy’s anthology series “American Horror Stories” and played Bill alongside Julie Andrews in “Eloise at the Plaza” and “Eloise at Christmasttime.”

As a songwriter, Creel is currently writing an original musical piece entitled WALK ON THROUGH, based on the collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The musical has been selected for the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s 2022 National Musical Theatre Conference and the concert meets musical was highlighted in The Day. He has released three original albums: GoodTimeNation, Quiet (which landed on Billboard’s “Top Heat Seekers”), Get Out, and his single “Noise” raised money and awareness for marriage equality. Creel was a co-founder of Broadway Impact, the first and only grassroots organization to mobilize the nationwide theater community in support of marriage equality.

A native of Findlay, Ohio, Gavin is a proud graduate of University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance and a 2022 Fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat. 

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Evan Handler is beloved by millions for portraying Harry Goldenblatt, divorce-lawyer-turned-husband to Kristin Davis’s Charlotte York, on HBO’s groundbreaking series, and films, “Sex and the City,” it’s current MAX follow-up, “And Just Like That,” as well as Charlie Runkle on Showtime’s seven season “Californication.”

In addition to authoring two highly acclaimed books, Time on Fire: My Comedy of Terrors, and It’s Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive, Evan has played leading roles in ABC’s “It’s Like, You Know…,” and NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” STARZ’ “Power,” and made numerous memorable guest appearances on “Lost,” “The West Wing,” “Six Feet Under,” “Necessary Roughness,” and “Friends.” In 2000, Evan played Larry Fine in ABC’s TV movie “The Three Stooges,” followed by additional “real life” portrayals of Lloyd Blankfein in HBO’s “Too Big to Fail,” Alan Dershowitz in FX’s “People vs. OJ Simpson,” and Hal Prince in FX’s “Fosse/Verdon,” each of which garnered numerous wide-ranging awards.

On the big screen, Evan played a leading role in Ron Howard’s “Ransom,” starring Mel Gibson, and featured and leading roles Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers,” “Taps,” “The Chosen,” and “Sweet Lorraine.” He’s currently visible in David Duchovny’s directorial effort, “Reverse the Curse.”

Prior to his work in film and television, Evan earned acclaim in seven Broadway productions, all performed between his twenty-first and thirtieth birthdays, and all in spite of losing nearly five years of that span to his fight against a supposedly “incurable” leukemia. During this time Evan starred in Broadway productions of “Six Degrees of Separation,” “I Hate Hamlet,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Broadway Bound” and “Master Harold...and the boys.” Evan also worked extensively in off-Broadway and regional theater at NY’s Public Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Rep, and Steppenwolf, performing early plays by Donald Margulies, Robert Schenkkan, Jez Butterworth, and numerous others.

Evan’s first book, Time On Fire, details his unlikely recovery from the leukemia diagnosed in the mid-1980s. His second book, It’s Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive, describes the twenty-year period post-illness, and Handler’s surprisingly circuitous journey toward gratitude, using tales of serial dating, absurd relationships, unexpected depressions, and, ultimately, lasting love and a miracle conception.

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Lucie Tiberghien - A Brooklynite since 2001, Molière in the Park’s Founding Artistic Director Lucie Tiberghien was raised in France and Switzerland. Specializing in new work, Lucie spent 15 years developing and directing new plays in New York City and all over the country. She directed World Premieres at La Jolla Playhouse, CATF, Second Stage, Rattlestick Theater, Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Kansas City Rep, Manhattan Class Company and more. As a translator and adapter, Lucie’s work has been produced in Paris and in New York. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious designation of chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, by the French Government.

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Lindsey Ferrentino is an American playwright with three world premieres in the 2024 season. In May, she opened The Artist in the UK (co-adapted with Drew McConie, Theatre Royal Plymouth,) and this August, she will premiere the new musical The Queen of Versailles (book by Lindsey Ferrentino, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, starring Kristin Chenoweth and F. Murray Abraham, The Colonial Theater).

Her other produced plays include Ugly Lies the Bone (The Lyttleton - National Theatre, UK, Roundabout Theatre Company, NY, over 100 productions worldwide), Amy and the Orphans (Roundabout Theatre Company), This Flat Earth (Playwrights Horizons), The Year to Come (La Jolla Playhouse) — among others. Her plays have been translated into Spanish, German, and Portuguese and have been produced across the US, in London, Germany, Spain, and Venezuela. This winter, Lindsey will direct her first feature film - an adaptation of her play Amy and the Orphans for Jason Bateman’s Aggregate Films.

She has various film projects in development at Netflix and Sony Pictures — with producers including Higher Ground, 3 Dot Entertainment, Dylan Clark Productions, Defiant by Nature. Lindsey is the recipient of The Arc’s prize for Entertainment Industry Excellence for her writing centered on disability inclusion. Other prizes include: the Kesserling, ASCAP Cole Porter Playwriting Prize, Paul Newman Drama Award, Laurents/Hatcher Award, NYU Distinguished Alumna Award, and Hunter College’s 40 Under 40 Distinguished Alumna. Lindsey is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Felker & Associates.

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